Written by Peter
Landesman, based on the book Game Brain by Jeanne Marie Laskas.

Directed by Peter
Landesman.

GRADE: A-

REVIEW:

I love (LOVE) the game of football. I watch it, cheer for my
favorite teams and play the video games. When some former NFL players made news
over the past decade by committing suicide or engaging in erratic behavior, it
became apparent to me that the game was having an adverse effect on their
psyches. Concussion is the story of
one doctor’s crusade to shed light on the effects of repeated blows to the head
by football players.

Will Smith plays Dr. Bennett Omalu, an African-born pathologist
working for a Pittsburgh coroner when the body of Mike Webster arrives in the
lab after a suicide. Webster (David Morse) was a Hall of Fame center for the
Pittsburgh Steelers during their heyday, but experienced all kinds of pain and
suffering since his retirement. Dr. Omalu orders a full lab work up, and
discovers anomalies in Webster’s brain tissue. His study leads to the discovery
chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition caused by repeated blows to
the head, causing small brain fissures. CTE usually deteriorates the brain over
time, causing patients to suffer pain, rage, depression and sometimes-violent
behavior. Omalu widens his study to other players who commit suicide including
former Chicago Bear Dave Duerson (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Justin
Strzelczyk (Matt Willig) another former Pittsburgh player who was killed after
hitting a tanker truck during a police chase.

Along the way, Omalu meets with all kinds of opposition from fellow doctors, fans, players and the League itself. Despite kindling
a romance with Prema (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and achieving some success for
discovering CTE, Omalu finds himself fighting an unwinnable war against the
juggernaut NFL.

Eventually, Omalu and Prema are forced to retreat to
California before CTE is accepted as a very real and destructive force in the
sports community. Omalu’s work is eventually recognized, leading to stricter
concussion protocols in place today. Whether those protocols and precautions
are working remains to be seen.

Concussion is very
good film about a very touchy subject. It forces fans, players, league
officials, lawyers and coaches to do a little soul searching regarding the game
we all love. Director-writer Peter Landesman tackles (no pun intended) CTE with
reverence for the men who strap on pads and helmets every Sunday for our
entertainment, while shedding light on a serious problem.

Will Smith’s performance is excellent, and welcome after a
stretch of appearances in some subpar movies. Equal praise is warranted for
Gugu Mbatha-Raw, along with Albert Brooks and Alec Baldwin.

Some of the details surrounding medical pathology might
leave audiences a little bored and the film’s ending doesn’t room for a lot of
answers to the problem of CTE, but Concussion
is worth seeing, even if you are a fan of the game.